Comment from Understand the Times:
If you still don't think that the emerging church is another Road to Rome, then read the following article. Now the pope is making it clear. Contemplative spirituality complete with monastic principles endorsed by Rome, the pope says, will provide the formula to get close to God.
What God is he talking about? The biblical answer - the god of this world - Satan.
August 10 - Silence is needed to hear God speak, pope says
Article: Roman Catholic Church And The Last Days
Getting off the grid and leaving behind the city is a great way to bring some much-needed silence to one's life, Pope Benedict XVI said.
"Silence is the condition of one's surroundings that best fosters contemplation, listening to God and meditation," he said Aug. 10 as he held his weekly general audience in the courtyard of the papal summer villa at Castel Gandolfo.
"Just the fact of being able to enjoy silence, to let oneself, as it were, be 'filled' by silence, predisposes us to prayer," the pope said.
Many people spend a few days at a monastic community or spiritual center, which, as "places of the spirit, are a backbone of the world," he said. Monastic communities have been built in beautiful places that are close to nature, he said.
He said such places bring together two important elements: the beauty of creation and the Creator, and silence that comes from "being far from the city and major channels of communication."
"God speaks in silence; however, it's necessary to know how to listen to him. For this reason monasteries are oases in which God speaks to humanity," he said.
The pope recalled the Aug. 11 feast day of St. Clare, founder of the Poor Clares, and the Aug. 9 feast day of St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein) as saints who show people how to draw closer to God through quiet prayer and contemplation; he asked that Mary help people learn to love silence and learn to pray.
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